Hitting the wall

I think I just hit that wall when you know enough to know that you really don't know anything at all. 

we are starting our second year. This morning I tutored a student one on one online. IN the afternoon I attended a live session from a teacher in Colorado. Over all the day left me feeling terrible. I so enjoyed having morning tea with a student. I was so impressed with Amy's lesson. She was teaching math and having the student do problems. 

Meanwhile I am so behind in my grading I am scared of Carol bringing up clubs. We cannot compete with the profits dollar for dollar so we position ourselves to be a quality program. But how much quality is there in professional graders? 

Connections requires for live session a week. Colorado does two a week. Our standard was one a month last year. And honestly I do not have the time to create more quality online lessons. 

If I could create a quality program, the tests would be embedded but composition and math. I would spend one day a week doing paper work monitoring, two days a week grading and two days planning and hosting live sessions. Now it's four or more days grading. And answering emails when I can. They can learn the content from their Learning Guides and books, I want to be the thinking coach. 

Not feeling good about me as a teacher today .....

Thoughts after Will richardson key note address

Will Richardson was the keynote speaker at the Rochester Community Schools Strategic Planning kick off 10/12/13. His message was to get us   confused.

Ruff notes

It's not what you know - that's in your pocket- It's what you DO with what you know 

“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.- eric hoffer

traditional learning is delievery v. modern learning is discovery

time and place v. anywhere anytime

just in case v. just in time 

how much time are we spending because of scarity 

national council of teacher of enlish stanards for 21st century 

its not what you know it's what you can do with what you know 

I am searching for new areas to change what I can do with what I could know

learning in moving from instiution into learners hands 

as a teacher we are should be shifting from delivering to guiding

It's not 21st century learning we are 14 years into this now. It's modern learning 

Take aways 

I loved the just in time learning instead of just in case. I think there is a body of content that gives us a cultural understanding but that context for context sake model is dead. Teachers used to have monopolies on knowledge now we must coach thinking.

He flipped between an image of the whole library verses the one shelf that a school gives you. He flipped between images of everyone on twitter verses your teachers. He declared he wanted his teenage children to learn from strangers. Because he did and he would not settle from only learning from those he knew so why should he children.  It flipped a switch for me. Why should I embrace that and refuse that to my children. 

He struck a balance between virtual learning and being connected to the internet. Between public school and private. Still supporting public education and traditional education. 

Inspiration 

I would love to develop an innovate high school program that is beyond blended to emerged. Where content is taught online but thinking is coached by facilitators/teachers. Where project based learning is mapped to common core. where those projects are impactful to the community related to business processes. Physically there would be coffee shop hangouts, build rooms and access points, and conference rooms.